


Buying Burton

by T Verano (t_verano)



Category: The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: Community: sentinel_thurs, M/M, Richard Burton the Explorer not the Actor, Sentinel Thursday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-19
Updated: 2010-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-14 14:32:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18950044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/t_verano/pseuds/T%20Verano
Summary: Richard Burton, "the explorer not the actor," provides some new inspiration for Blair.





	Buying Burton

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Sentinel Thursday challenge 339: "frontier"

The explorer, not the actor.

How many times has he said those words? Blair looks at the book in his hands and wonders. _The explorer, not the actor._ He's been both of those things himself, though, hasn't he? All his life.

Pretty heavy on the 'explorer' front when he first met Jim — exploring Jim's senses, even if secondhand; exploring the closed society of cops from a (very) quasi-insider view; exploring the finer points of how it feels to be shot at and drugged and kidnapped, to spend quality time with a stimulating assortment of career criminals and serial killers. Exploring how it feels to jump off cliffs and out of planes and voluntarily cross other new frontiers of seriously screwed-up, masochistically macho and death-defying behavior, just to follow Jim around.

But he's gotten used to all that — as used to it as a person can get (as used to it as _he's_ going to get, anyway) — and for a while now, he's been way more of an actor than an explorer. _Don't ask, don't tell. Pretend it doesn't exist. Play it safe._

He looks at the book in his hand again, the book he bought this afternoon. More Burton. Burton the explorer, Burton the adventurer, Burton who pushed the boundaries — _he_ was never known for playing it safe, not about anything he really wanted.

Blair traces the faded lettering on the book's front cover with his fingers for a moment before he puts the book down on his bed and walks to the door of his bedroom and looks at Jim, who's sprawled lazily on the couch watching an NYPD Blue rerun. 

Jim.

_Jim._

And maybe he's not carrying his newly purchased book, but it's a good thing Blair has Burton to hold onto as he walks across the room towards Jim, as Jim looks up from the TV, because this is definitely _terra incognita_ and he's shaking a little inside. But even Burton must've had his moments, right? And Burton never let that stop him. Blair won't let it stop _him_ , either. Not any more.

"Jim," he says, and clears his throat. And he sits down on the coffee table in front of Jim, blocking Jim's view of Andy and Bobby arguing about whatever it is that they're arguing about, letting his knee brush against Jim's knee, looking into Jim's suddenly narrowed eyes. "Jim, we need to talk."

Burton hasn't ever led him wrong before, after all. He takes a deep breath and bumps his knee against Jim's again. No more acting.

Just exploring. Somewhere maybe they both — he thinks (hopes, prays) — want to go.


End file.
